Research Catalog

Title

Gillette Castle : a history / Erik Ofgang.

Author

Ofgang, Erik,

Publication

• Charleston, SC : The History Press, 2017.
• ©2017.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

139 pages : illustrations; 23 cm

Summary

The home of an icon: During his career as an actor, William Gillette portrayed world-renowned character Sherlock Holmes in more than 1,300 performances. His career as a playwright and actor afforded him the opportunity to purchase a 184-acre estate, where he also built a twenty-four-room medieval-style castle. Overlooking the Connecticut River, Gillette's castle was complete with spy mirrors, sliding furniture, hidden rooms and a three-mile, quarter-scale railroad. ...Erik Ofgang examines the history of an iconic structure and Gillette's life and role in the evolution of Sherlock Holmes -- Cover, page [4]

Subject

• ARCHITECTURE / Buildings / Landmarks & Monuments
• Characters and characteristics
• Connecticut > Gillette Castle State Park
• Doyle, Arthur Conan, 1859-1930 > Characters
• Doyle, Arthur Conan, 1859-1930
• Gillette Castle State Park (Conn.)
• Gillette, William, 1853-1937 > Homes and haunts
• Gillette, William, 1853-1937
• HISTORY / United States / State & Local / New England (CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT)
• Holmes, Sherlock
• Homes
• PHOTOGRAPHY / Subjects & Themes / Architectural & Industrial
• TRAVEL / Museums, Tours, Points of Interest

Note

• The home built by William Gillette in Connecticut is a stone structure of 14,000 square feet, forming 24 rooms. Innovative by design, it was the first house in the area with running water and the first powered by electricity. Additionally, it features secret passages, spy mirrors and a collection of Gillette's innovations including forty-seven complex door knobs, none of them like another.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages [132]-135) and index.

ISBN

• 1467118524
• 9781467118521
• 9781540216267
• 1540216268

LCCN

2017931796

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library